The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s upcoming quarterly meeting on April 26-27 will discuss its recent efforts in improving information and practices for dealers, including its recent proposed amendments to Rules G-47 on time of trade disclosures and D-15 on sophisticated municipal market professionals as well as a retrospective rule review for Rule G-12 on uniform practices for dealers.
Those will be discussed in addition to the board’s ongoing efforts to shorten the time of trade reporting window, from 15 minutes to one minute as part of amendments to Rule G-14 on reports of sale, as well as exemptions for municipal advisory firms to requalify their registration as part of Rule G-3 on professional qualification requirements.
The board will be discussing the comments received on its proposed amendments to Rules G-47 and D-15, which was mostly welcomed by dealer groups though they did recommend a few additions. The MSRB will also be digging into related interpretive guidance pertaining to inter-dealer confirmation surrounding Rule G-12 on uniform practice.
Amendments to Rule G-12 were recently published in the federal register to account for changes to facilitate shortening of the settlement cycle, which will also be a significant topic of discussion during this meeting.
The board received over 50 comments to its request for comment on Rule G-14 in Oct. 2022, most of them urging the board to drop the proposal and that it would provide virtually no benefit. The board will use the upcoming meeting to discuss its own data analysis on the topic and its related stakeholder outreach.
The MSRB will also discuss its draft amendments to Rule G-3 on professional qualification requirements to create an exemption for municipal advisor representatives from requalification via examination.
The one-time exemption would allow municipal advisory firms to requalify their registration after a two-year lapse in their Series 50 exams.
That prospect earned approval from the National Association of Municipal Advisors, and in its letter, the group urged the MSRB to develop further guidance on how the new requirements can generally be met.